[Clark]

I caught a 1 pound 5 ounce squirel with a 7.9 gr .177 cal pellet from a QB36 Chineese pellet gun.
Instant death.

http://www.ktog.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=62154

[Clark]

This gun only kills crows and squirels when they are hit in the head or neck.

[41mag]

Hold it up a little higher.I can't see it.:)
Pretty good size!
Get a few more and you can make a pie.:D

[Clark]

I am trying, but I can't get the upload to work.


edit:
I uploaded it at another forum and used the html from there.

[smokemaker]

Nice chatterbox! I got a Winchester 1000X as an early father's day present, and was wondering if it was big enough for squirrels, and I got my answer from you. Accurate enough for headshots on bushytails too.:evil:

[Jo Mama]

That's funny my dad was just telling me about a squirrel and his bird feeder. Apparently it chewed through the string it was hanging by, then went down and cleaned up. He shot his with a 20 dollar chineese pellet rifle. He says body shots will kill, but not quick, they make it back to there holes and die. and the others don't like the smell and have to find new holes.

[WhiteKnight]

He says body shots will kill, but not quick, they make it back to there holes and die. and the others don't like the smell and have to find new holes.

Ohhhh! :)

I guess since "the others don't like the smell and have to find new holes" that makes intentionally wounding the squirrel okay. :fire:


:cuss:

[JohnKSa]

There is a difference between pest control and hunting.

One is not necessarily better than the other, but they are definitely different.

[Jo Mama]

Hey Whiteknight,

Chill out. I wasn't saying it was ok to wound a squirrel, even if it is a pest and causing property damage. I was merely stating a fact about this particular pellet rifle. My Father isn't all that happy about them moving to new holes anyway cause they continue to dig up his yard.

[R.H. Lee]

So, if the squirrel had not been in the birdfeeder, he would not have suffered the death penalty?

[Jo Mama]

Yes, actually. Had the ground squirrels not dug up his front yard, damaged his birdfeeder and chewed through the hose on his propane tank the varmints would have been left alone; as they had been until the damage occured.

[Jo Mama]

In the interest of a more humane kills on squirrels. Which is the cause of the poor performance of the pellet rifle of my father on squirrels. Is the answer to get a faster .177 pellet rifle or to move up in caliber to a .22? thanks for the help.

[JohnKSa]

Which is the cause of the poor performance of the pellet rifle of my father on squirrels. Is the answer to get a faster .177 pellet rifle or to move up in caliber to a .22? None of the above.

If you want instant, DRT kills, head shots are the only solution. That pretty much applies to any kind of hunting, not just with airguns.

NOW, a little perspective adjustment.

When someone posts about a deer running 50 yards after being shot in the chest, no one complains about cruelty or talks about the deer getting the death penalty.

On the other hand, if a ground squirrel gets shot in the chest and manages to run 15 feet to its burrow before it bleeds out, that's called "intentionally wounding"--and is labeled inhumane.

Let's TRY to be consistent.

[Jo Mama]

Amen, Brother.

[halvey]

Nice work!

[WhiteKnight]

NOW, a little perspective adjustment.

Actually, all the deer I've taken have either been spine shots or double lung, and they were all DRTs. Thus don't give me any crap about a double standard or a "perspective adjustment." I, for one, don't anything else besides DRTs while I personally, or anyone else is hunting.

The original poster made no mention of trying to do anything differently than body shots and seemd to completely disregard the idea of a humane kill. What if I nonchalantly mentioned "oh yeah, i hunt deer with a 20 gauge and birdshoot. It may take them a couple weeks to die, but that's okay by me. "

Perhaps the above sarcasm flowed out of my growing irritation at hunters who qualify big game animals (elk, moose) as being "good" enough to deserve a quick kill, and then obsess over what caliber, what bullet, and behind how many grains of powder, etc. That is great! Try your hardest to give the animal the quickest, most humane death possible.

Yet I see many other hunters disqualify other smaller game (dove, squirrel) as being on some sort of lower level, and use subpar equipment to dispatch them without even so much as a thought to the animal's well being. Perhaps it has something to do with size, but it seems a lot of guys want to use a .338 for elk and cringe at the thought purchasing anything more than a POS airgun to remove unwanted critters from the homestead.

IMHO, if you can't make a headshot on a squirrel, you shouldn't be hunting. It's not as if you can't afford to sneak 10 or 20 feet closer to the animal because they aren't going to charge you (African dangerous game) or dissappear forever (flighty monster whitetail).

[JohnKSa]

Actually, all the deer I've taken have either been spine shots or double lung, and they were all DRTs. Cool.

But I was commenting on how people responded to posts about hunting various animals, not on your hunting technique.

It is rather well accepted that a chest shot on big game is humane (you use them yourself, I see), but I notice that when the quarry is little and cute, a different standard of humane seems to apply.

[Stand_Watie]

.

[RooK]

In the interest of a more humane kills on squirrels. Which is the cause of the poor performance of the pellet rifle of my father on squirrels. Is the answer to get a faster .177 pellet rifle or to move up in caliber to a .22? thanks for the help.

If you want a faster kill, those are definately viable options. I recently bought one of the Gamo Shadow 1000s and it's the best I've seen so far for an air rifle. Shoots a .177 caliber bullet at 1000fps (hence name) and although I don't like the sights, I can use them to put the pellets within a 1 1/2" circle at 25 yards. Pretty good imo. I also have a Daisy Powerline 22X in .22cal. It make a visible and audible difference when contacting game. You can hear the bullet make a smack sound when it hits a bird or what have you. Pellet style also makes a difference, try using round nose or match wadcutters. Just like rifle bullets, the blunter shapes cause more internal damage.

I've used my air rifles for years on anything from starlings to doves during hunting season to crows.

[halvey]

Yet I see many other hunters disqualify other smaller game (dove, squirrel) as being on some sort of lower level, and use subpar equipment to dispatch them without even so much as a thought to the animal's well being. Perhaps it has something to do with size, Actually, it probably has to do with overpenetration. Many of us live in the city, suburbs or small plots in the country. You can't shoot squirrels with a .22 or .410 there. The pellet gun is your only choice. Unfortunately, pellet guns don't always offer clean kills. Sure head shots are nice. But the reality is many pellet guns get 4" groups at 7 yards.

[JohnKSa]

Unfortunately, pellet guns don't always offer clean kills. Sure head shots are nice. But the reality is many pellet guns get 4" groups at 7 yards. That's not really what I was trying to say. I was really trying to point out that there seems to be a different standard of humane applied to big game vs small cute game. A chest shot is considered humane on deer, but it seems that some consider that only a head shot is humane on a squirrel.

BTW, I have a few pellet guns and even my $25 Chinese POS will group better than an inch at 10 meters. My nicer airguns shoot way better than I can hold. I think that my HW "sport" rifles will do better than 0.2" at 10 meters. My FWB match airguns will shoot even better than that--the groups on the test targets are so small as to be unmeasurable--they just looked like a single shot.

[Stand_Watie]

Actually, it probably has to do with overpenetration. Many of us live in the city, suburbs or small plots in the country. You can't shoot squirrels with a .22 or .410 there. The pellet gun is your only choice. Unfortunately, pellet guns don't always offer clean kills. Sure head shots are nice. But the reality is many pellet guns get 4" groups at 7 yards.

I have recently discovered something called cb caps that are a perfect way to convert your .22 to a high power pellet gun. These fire a .22 caliber projectile with just the primer in a .22 shell at about 1000 fps. I would consider them perfect for squirrel hunting (or just very quiet .22 target shooting) in an urban environment.

http://images03.outdoorinteractive.net/mgen/250590_d.jpg?is=200,200,0xffffff&cvt=jpg

http://www.outdoorsuperstore.com/store/products/productDisplay.asp?productID=250590

[RooK]

Ever heard of the Aguila Colibri? It's a .22 ammo with a light 17gr (I believe) bullet propelled by nothing more than priming compound. Saying they are quiet is an understatement. Might want to check out the gun stores for some and see what you think. The 'Super' version adds a bit more velocity and ditches the stinky smell, I would also recommend it as the only one to use in a rifle (Aguila says to use all of them in pistols only). I've shot them from both my Rem 597 and 10/22.

[halvey]

I've heard of them, but I've only seen them at gunshows.

So between a bb gun and a standard .22, is it kind of in the middle?

Most BB guns have terrible accuracy and can't put down rabbits at all. And yup, tried birdshot. Pretty much sucks for everything.

[Stand_Watie]

I have also used the 'super-colibri' which fires a 20 grain bullet at (according to this website) 500 fps

http://www.impactguns.com/store/aguila_super_colibri.html

and a correction to my earlier, the CCI cb long is supposed to have 727 fps, and a 29 grain bullet.

I'd say they're closer to a high power pellet gun in terms of range - for example in my rifle the super colibri at 75 yards has about a 3 foot drop. The CCI at 75 yards has about a one foot drop.

[halvey]

Thanks for the info. It sounds like that will work. Yup, pretty much a pellet gun, but I bet better accuracy. Most of my shooting will be at less than 30 yards, so I assume my drop will be only minimal.

[Stand_Watie]

The nearest range that I tested it at was 35 yards. I got a 4 inch drop on the super-colibri at that range, and the CCI ammo was right on. In case you're curious what I was doing, I was trying to figure out how far the stuff would fly at it's maximum range, to figure in which directions I could shoot into the air without having to worry about hitting a neighbor.



35 yards

Colibri ------- 4 inches low average
CCI --------right on the money


50 yards

Colibri --------18 inches low average
CCI --------2 inches low average

75 yards

Colibri --------36 inches low average
CCI --------11.5 inches low average

100 yards

Colibri -------- Unknown/off target completely
CCI ---------29 inches low average

[christophera]

Actually, it probably has to do with overpenetration. Many of us live in the city, suburbs or small plots in the country. You can't shoot squirrels with a .22 or .410 there. The pellet gun is your only choice. Unfortunately, pellet guns don't always offer clean kills. Sure head shots are nice. But the reality is many pellet guns get 4" groups at 7 yards.

Pellet and BB guns are considered firearms and are ILLEGAL to shoot in urban growth boundries in the state of Oregon. You might want to check your local laws. This law even includes blow guns.:confused:

[PBIR]

I had a Crossman pump I bought new for about $50 in 1996, caliber .177

I drilled about 8 Nashville,TN squirrels with upper chest cavity shots that produced clean, one shot kills. They were ruled squirrel non grata once they began nesting in the attic of the apartment I was renting downtown - sounded like a pride of lions scratching on sheet metal at 3 in the morning, not pleasant at all. The yard was cleared and no more restless nights for me or the neighbors.


-P-

[NRA4LIFE]

I have to disagree with some of the information on this thread. I have a Gamo 440 Hunter model with the 4X scope. At 50 feet I can shoot sub-dime sized groups, easy. I have killed several large bird feeder raiding limb rats with chest shots that killed them instantly. They never even twitched by the time they hit the ground. The same goes for rabbits. I have killed at least 20 of them with one shot. Again, all of them dead by the time I could reach them. And as far as spine shooting a deer, Unless it's high in the neck or near it's head, that does not kill a deer. I think all of us who have ever mis-directed a shot from the lung area know what I mean. Most often that results in a bellering cripple.

[Denver]

O.K., now I am curious. Could a variable in the one-shot-one-dead-squirrel equasion be the projectile itself?

For us pellet-gun-weilding hunters, what shape pellet were each of you using in your successful campaigns? Wadcutter, pointed, hollow point, extra-heavy (8 grain round nose, for instance), or something else?

I have had the misfortune of having to shoot a hapless squirrel dozens of times with the old Crosman 760 Powermaster, using wadcutters. I finally had to employ the services of a nearby cinderblock "fired" from about five feet. Gory but effective. (And not the dance you wish to be doing with sensitive neighbors around! "Don't mind me! I'm just mashing a squirrel for dinner! Want some?")

I haven't tried the colibris or the cb caps on game, yet. I've shot them at the range, only to look at my single six to see if it had malfunctioned because there was NO discernable recoil or report in that noisy environment!

[Jo Mama]

I have to give those squirrels some credit. They aren't as dumb as I thought they were. My Dad had a birdfeeder that was tied up in a tree with some string and the little buggers chewed through the string so the feeder would fall and they could get the seed out. So he used some wire and rehung the feeder and the little buggers chewed the branch that the feeder was on and dropped the feeder again. He has now killed off all the dumb ones and now just has a few smart ones left, or maybe just caggy.

[JesusCow]

Hmm.. Mini-14 used on this one

Now if I could just get it down from the tree. T'was very lucky and interesting way it landed!

Two additional pictures (2 different angles) - 1 (http://nokansas.net/ranch/squirrel1_m.jpg) 2 (http://nokansas.net/ranch/squirrel3_m.jpg)
And a video (almost got it down) - small video (http://www.nokansas.net/ranch/squirrel.mpg) - 1.3mb MAN, it didnt want to come down! did it?

http://nokansas.net/ranch/squirrel2_m.jpg

[JohnKSa]

I know people who can shoot squirrels all day with a pellet gun and never have to use two pellets on one squirrel.

It's not because they're using great pellets or airguns...it's because they're great shots!

[PBIR]

what shape pellet were each of you using in your successful campaigns? Wadcutter, pointed, hollow point, extra-heavy (8 grain round nose, for instance), or something else?


IIRC correctly I had the crossman point tip .177's that you could buy at Walmart. If not, they were regular crossman wadcutters.

[christophera]

What about bb's? You guys use them on Squirrels? My nephew and I were getting really good groupings with my Crossman pump pistol.

[Bridger]

I don't know about squirrels, but I've been using a GAMO Shadow 1000 on my chipmunk problem. Headshots are easy and they go down quick. Some twitching, but that's more from the headshot than anything.

I think the pellets I'm using are .177 beeman brand hollow points, the gold plated ones.

[PBIR]

What about bb's? You guys use them on Squirrels? My nephew and I were getting really good groupings with my Crossman pump pistol.

I always used pellets. Although I can remember cleaning many a sparrows clock when I was a kid with BB's (they like to nest in the eaves, chimmeny, etc of your house - makes a real mess. Always seemed to be effective against their frames, most were dead before they hit the ground.